Powerswitch Action
Oakland, CA · EIN 71-0914032. Reported 128 grants totalling $21.3M to 49 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Powerswitch Action, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 49 distinct organizations, with 7% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 76% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $127,500. Half of what it reported fell between $61,446 and $255,000; the smallest was $12,000 and the largest $743,915. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Labor United Incorporated | Boston, MA | $1,516,569 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy | Oakland, CA | $1,289,644 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Center on Policy Initiatives | San Diego, CA | $1,238,105 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Power Interfaith | Harrisburg, PA | $1,202,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Grassroots Collaborative | Chicago, IL | $1,113,133 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| United for a New Economy | Commerce City, CO | $1,106,144 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development | Santa Ana, CA | $1,038,100 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Working Partnerships USA | San Jose, CA | $1,034,211 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy | Ventura, CA | $964,794 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy | Los Angeles, CA | $920,605 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Puget Sound Sage | Seattle, WA | $916,111 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Warehouse Worker Resource Center | Ontario, CA | $912,198 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates of Southern California | Los Angeles, CA | $860,307 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Pittsburgh United | Pittsburgh, PA | $765,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Align the Alliance for a Greater Ny Inc | New York, NY | $582,411 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Georgia Strategic Alliance for New Direction and Unified Policies | Atlanta, GA | $581,311 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Stand Up Nashville | Nashville, TN | $550,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Tides Center | San Francisco, CA | $530,300 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Stand Up Nashville Inc | Nashville, TN | $475,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Missouri Workers Center | Kansas City, MO | $455,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Workers Assistance Program Inc | Austin, TX | $290,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| New Economy of Working Houston | Houston, TX | $245,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Citizen Action of Wisconsin Inc | Milwaukee, WI | $235,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Georgetown University | Washington, DC | $180,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The Peoples Lobby Education Institute | Chicago, IL | $170,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Towards Justice of Colorado | Denver, CO | $170,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Action Center on Race and the Economy Institute | Chicago, IL | $160,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund | Washington, DC | $150,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Chinese Progressive Association | Oakland, CA | $149,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| United for Respect Education Fund | Sacramento, CA | $142,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Worker Power Institute | Phoenix, AZ | $140,300 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Worksafe Inc | Oakland, CA | $131,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Alliance for Global Justice | Tucson, AZ | $123,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Regents Univ of California | Los Angeles, CA | $105,196 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Community Partners | Los Angeles, CA | $101,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Defending Rights and Dissent Inc | Washington, DC | $96,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Step Forward Foundation | Morgan Hill, CA | $82,900 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Make the Road New York | Brooklyn, NY | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund Inc | Milwaukee, WI | $65,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| New York Communities Organizing Fund Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $65,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Neo Philanthropy Inc | New York, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| President and Fellows of Harvard College | Cambridge, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| National Employment Law Project | New York, NY | $48,750 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Demand Progress Education Fund | Silver Spring, MD | $42,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Philadelphia Area Jobs With Justice | Philadelphia, PA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Transit Riders | Seattle, WA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Other Grants | $30,783 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Socal Cosh | Los Angeles, CA | $26,250 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Clean Water Fund | Washington, DC | $20,700 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
35 of 49 (71%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Community Labor United
CLIMATE, CAPACITY BUILDING - Occord
CA, Capacity Building, Housing - Power Inc
CAP. BUILD, CLIMATE, HOUSE, WMTC, - Center on Policy Initiatives
California/Climate, Housing, WMTC - Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance
CA COALITION FOR WORKER POWER - United for a New Economy
CAPACITY BUILDING, HOUSING, WMTC
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 42 of 49 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 34 | $5,386,508 | $107,500 |
| 2022 | 34 | $5,774,051 | $112,951 |
| 2023 | 32 | $5,211,883 | $130,000 |
| 2024 | 28 | $4,903,880 | $149,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
45% of its giving went to organizations in California. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $127,500 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in California.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Powerswitch Action's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 31 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 1305 Franklin St Ste 501, Oakland, CA, 94612.
EIN 71-0914032 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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